Tour de Bloc: Canadian Nationals

Teknik was a proud sponsor of this year’s Tour de Bloc; Canada’s first nation-wide bouldering tour including locals, regionals, and a supe-awes-wick Nationals. After competing in the west siiiiiiide’s locals and regional, Team Teknik’s Seth Whitepuma Mason and Alex Faid headed east to Quebec to compete in the Tour de Bloc finals, the Nationals at Allez Up.

They came with their BMX posse “Whiptown”, bikes and all, ready for le super-fun weekend in Montreal. Tres cool! Tout la gang got into the groove with Montreal Smoked Meat sandwiches for a pre-qualifiers lunch and washed down these most ridiculous sandwiches ever with le Pepsi, of course, to honour the Quebecers affinity with that drink.

The crew rolled up to the gym and Team Teknik, put in un bon effort sur les walls. The Puma squeaked through into the finals par le peau de ses dents en 14ieme place, and Alex was the first cut man in 15th. This was rather unfortunate for the Alexandroid because he was a millisecond from qualifying 5th; he had grabbed the final hold on one of the problems with one hand, but ran out of time as he was bringing his other hand over for the finishing match.

It was the end of the first day and time for poutine (at 1am)! And more Pepsi. With a dinner like this, a win the next day was inevitable.

After another sleepless night of battling the massively slanted floors at the bed and breakfast, a fine meal of croissants and coffee were delivered to the rooms. Finals started later in the afternoon, which meant time for le shopping! Puma wanted to really get down with the French Canadians so he went on the prowl for the perfect pelt. It came to him in the form of a Fleur de Lis tank top and matching undies in the tourist shops of Vieux Montreal. Perfect. And the luck didn’t stop there, upon arriving at the gym, Alex found out that finalist Matt Fontaine couldn’t make it for the final round so he was bumped in, Huzzah!

At the gym Seth prepared in iso and secretly donned his new gettup, the Whitepuma was transformed into Le Puma Blanc; a much deadlier creature…

Alex was the first climber out and was greeted with a Pinchtite and NKR1 on problem 1. They knocked him down a few times as those holds tend to do, but he put in a good effort all the same. Second out was Le Puma in his Fleur de Lis glory. He powered up and pounced up problem 1 for a flash and the crowd went bonkers. Problem 2 was a repeat performance but even louder. After flashing he put his hands to his ears yelling What?! What?! and the crowd went into a frenzy. Problem 3 proved to be a little slithery and dealt out a couple falls for the Pumae. He re-grouped himself and shed a layer; the tank top was weighing him down. Stripped to nothing but the Montreal underwear, Le Puma Blanc turned to the crowd and whipped them up into a screaming mass. He leapt onto the wall and the constant pounding noise from the crowd pushed him right to the top. It was so exciting people were practically barfing roller coasters.

Puma moved on to problem 4 and sent it in a fury. It was a huge jump from a low Blade Runner to a couple high slopers and he attacked and ate it for lunch.

The routesetters were having multiple heart attacks by this point, the second guy out was sending everything, les problemes ne sont pas assez dur! They went into Wrenchwrecker mode and quickly re-set the first half of problem 5. It was tight; they finished their work tweeking le bloc to perfection with only seconds to spare before Alex came off his rest and on to the final problem.

After Alex put in his fine efforts, Le Puma found a Mothh and a Blade Runner sitting there for him to sink his claws onto. A couple crimps further and a couple tries later he managed to get the zone hold for a high point. The crowd went mental; Le Puma had finished his hunt and had eaten his fill.

His performance proved to be the best of the night and he pulled out a fantastic win. Who goes from 14th up to 1st? Quoi?? C’est incroyable!

Puma a gagner le premiere place Teknik medal, the best prize ever (besides tons of money). He was joined for the win by Vikki Weldon who won the women’s event.

And how super-cool is this?: Ken Saito flew all the way in from Japan just to compete at this comp. He climbed with Seth and Nels and Zoe in the Tokyo leg of the Teknik vs Japan tour. It was super-bon to have him au Canada!

We all look forward to another great comp season next year. Hopefully the Team Teknik Injury Division will soon cease to exist. Zoe is still mending from a pretty smashed up ankle from last year’s PCA finals, and Nels is still working on his shoulder and is also recovering from injuries after rolling his grain truck. Wish them well!

Thanks to the Tour de Bloc for the awesome season and to all the sponsors, gyms, competitors, and volunteers that helped make it happen. Merci buckets!